Land Acknowledgement
We welcome everyone to this location with the understanding that the welcoming is not ours to
do, as we are guests and continued colonizers on this land. We acknowledge that the land was
stolen from Indigenous Americans, and that white people forcibly brought Black and Brown people
here to continue their violent colonization.
It is important that we as an Association honor our values of equity and intentional inclusion by
incorporating land and labor acknowledgements as part of our events, meetings, and
conversations, as well as including these acknowledgements through our actions.
Land and labor acknowledgements should seek not to further traumatize people of color while
emphasizing for white individuals the continued pain caused by genocide, slavery, colonization,
anti-Blackness, xenophobia, and bias. We hope to spur action rather than guilt, indifference, or
debate.
Labor Acknowledgement
“It will be the year 2123 before African Americans will have been free for as long as their ancestors
were enslaved” (From Unpaid Labor Contribution site). A labor acknowledgement is, to be clear
with our words, an acknowledgement of the history of genocidal chattel slavery in this country.
The impact of forced physical, emotional, economic, and sexual labor continues to this day.
We need to also acknowledge that unfair labor practices, including but not limited to, unfair wage
gaps, minimum wage that does not meet costs of living, harassment and bias in hiring practices,
and more, continue to exist. There is also still a stigma to labor labeled as “unskilled” when we
know that no labor is unskilled labor. We encourage you, as we will do, to recognize and appreciate
it is often hidden labor that allows us to engage successfully in our own labor together.